MacGuffin
In fiction, a MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation. The MacGuffin's importance to the plot is not the object itself, but rather its effect on the characters and their motivations. The MacGuffin technique is common in films, especially thrillers. Usually, the MacGuffin is revealed in the first act, and thereafter declines in importance. It can reappear at the climax of the story but may actually be forgotten by the end of the story. Multiple MacGuffins are sometimes derisively identified as plot coupons. History and use The use of a MacGuffin as a plot device predates the name MacGuffin. The Holy Grail of Arthurian Legend has been cited as an example of an early MacGuffin, as the desired object that serves to advance the plot.Dr. Marjory T. Ward, "King Arthur Revisited" in Dr. Andrew Keen (ed.) "Proceedings of the Second History/Literature Conference on Medieval Literature" The World War I-era actress Pearl White used weenie to identify whatever object (a roll of film, a rare coin, expensive diamonds, etc.) impelled the heroes, and often the villains as well, to pursue each other through the convoluted plots of The Perils of Pauline and the other silent film serials in which she starred. In the 1930 detective novel The Maltese Falcon, a small statuette provides both the book's eponymous title and its motive for intrigue. The name MacGuffin was coined by the English screenwriter Angus MacPhail and was popularized by Alfred Hitchcock in the 1930s. Alfred Hitchcock The director and producer Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term MacGuffin and the technique with his 1935 film The 39 Steps, an early example of the concept. Hitchcock explained the term MacGuffin in a 1939 lecture at Columbia University in New York: It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men on a train. One man says, 'What's that package up there in the baggage rack?' And the other answers, 'Oh, that's a MacGuffin'. The first one asks, 'What's a MacGuffin?' 'Well,' the other man says, 'it's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands.' The first man says, 'But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands,' and the other one answers, 'Well then, that's no MacGuffin!' So you see that a MacGuffin is actually nothing at all. Interviewed in 1966 by François Truffaut, Hitchcock explained the term MacGuffin using the same story. Hitchcock also said, "The MacGuffin is the thing that the spies are after but the audience don't care." Hitchcock's term MacGuffin helped him to assert that his films were in fact not what they appeared to be on the surface. Hitchcock also related this anecdote in a television interview for Richard Schickel's documentary The Men Who Made the Movies, and in an interview with Dick Cavett. George Lucas In contrast to Hitchcock's view of a MacGuffin as an object around which the plot revolves but about which the audience does not care, George Lucas believes that "the audience should care about it almost as much as the dueling heroes and villains on-screen." Lucas describes R2-D2 as the MacGuffin of the [[Star Wars (film)|original Star Wars film]],Star Wars (1977) Region 2 DVD release (2004). Audio commentary, 00:14:44 – 00:15:00. and said that the titular MacGuffin in Raiders of the Lost Ark was an excellent example as opposed to the more obscure MacGuffins of the next two Indiana Jones films. Yves Lavandier For the filmmaker and drama writing theorist Yves Lavandier, in the strictly Hitchcockian sense, a MacGuffin is a secret that motivates the villains. North by Northwest s supposed MacGuffin is nothing that motivates the protagonist; Roger Thornhill's objective is to extricate himself from the predicament that the mistaken identity has created, and what matters to Vandamm and the Central Intelligence Agency is of little importance to Thornhill. A similar lack of motivating power applies to the alleged MacGuffins of The Lady Vanishes, The 39 Steps, and Foreign Correspondent. In a broader sense, says Lavandier, a MacGuffin denotes any justification for the external conflictual premises of a work. Examples Alfred Hitchcock popularized the use of the MacGuffin technique. Examples from Hitchcock's films include plans for a silent plane engine in The 39 Steps, radioactive uranium ore in Notorious, and a clause from a secret peace treaty in Foreign Correspondent. Many other films have also employed this technique; for example, the Maltese Falcon in the 1941 film of the same name, the meaning of "Rosebud" in Citizen Kane (1941), the Heart of the Ocean necklace in Titanic (1997), the letters of transit in Casablanca (1942), and the "Rabbit's Foot" in Mission: Impossible III (2006). To emphasize how the nature of the MacGuffin is not important, in the film Ronin (1998) the MacGuffin is a metallic briefcase whose contents are never revealed. A similar example is the briefcase shown throughout Pulp Fiction (1994), in which the glowing contents of the briefcase are never revealed, despite being violently coveted by many major characters. In discussing the mixed critical reception of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), the primary criticism was that the crystal skull in the film was seen as an unsatisfying MacGuffin. The director Steven Spielberg said, "I sympathize with people who didn't like the MacGuffin because I never liked the MacGuffin." In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Infinity Stones serve at times as MacGuffins. Said Kevin Feige, "We started to realize that a lot of these films required MacGuffins like the Orb in Guardians of the Galaxy, the scepter in the first Avengers film. And the notion that all of them could be a Stone started to come about right around the time Joss wrote that little tag in Avengers 1." In Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Peter Quill observes, "This orb has a real shiny blue suitcase, Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon sort of vibe." In both film and literature, the Holy Grail is often used as a MacGuffin. . The 1975 cult classic comedic film Monty Python and the Holy Grail is structured around a knightly quest for the sacred relic. Examples in television include various Rambaldi artifacts in Alias, the orb in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., and Krieger Waves in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "A Matter of Perspective".A Matter of Perspective (1990) Region 1 DVD release (2002). Season 3, Disk 4. Carl Macek created protoculture as a MacGuffin to unite the storylines of the three separate anime that composed Robotech. The Hellmouth in Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been described as a kind of topological MacGuffin: "a shortcut, in lieu of scientific explanation," as Joss Whedon put it.Anne Billson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2005) p. 65 Examples in literature include the television set in Wu Ming's novel 54 and the container in William Gibson's Spook Country. In the online game The Kingdom of Loathing, the player's character must eventually complete a long and convoluted quest named "player name and The Quest for the Holy MacGuffin". It involves going to several locations while following clues from the character's father's diary and collecting various items. Eventually, it ends in a boss battle and the MacGuffin is returned to the council. The game never reveals what exactly it is or how it will aid in saving the kingdom. See also *Alien space bats *Big Dumb Object *Chekhov's gun *''Deus ex machina'' *''The Double McGuffin'' *Stanley Elkin *Fake Shemp *''Much Ado About Nothing'' *Red herring *Sampo *Schmilblick *Unobtainium References External links *MacGuffin at TV Tropes *A.Word.A.Day — McGuffin, from Wordsmith.org *FAQs Page of the Hitchcock Scholars/'MacGuffin' website at Labyrinth.net.au/~muffin/ Category:Fiction Category:Film and video terminology Category:Literary techniques Category:Narratology Category:Plot (narrative)